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Tuesday, August 22, 2017

When I have stations throughout the school year I enjoy adding a "fun station." I like to have it be somewhat literary or linguistic. One great game is Bananagrams and I just found out about a new one called Rewordable.

This is a great game for you to enjoy with family and friends, but more than that it's a fun way for students to take an intellectual brain break and think about words (which is key for yearbook and journalism especially!)

There are 124 cards consisting of single letters, blended sounds (ch), and full syllables (ine, age, etc).

The game starts with three cards and three tokens facing up. Then each person gets five cards. You make words with your cards and collect tokens if possible. Once you create a word, others can add to it and it turns into THEIR word.

It really is easy and we only looked at the directions twice the entire night! It isn't just the one with the most verbose vocabulary that wins. It takes some serious thinking and brain power to keep it.

Notes: If you are using this as a quickie with your students, I would not use the tokens. I would just have each student grab five cards and see what they can create.

I was lucky enough to get this as a freebie to try out in my classroom and leave an honest review. As a self declared word-nerd, I honestly love it. You can find it for sale at many big book stores (e.g. Barnes and Noble) I've also include an Amazon affiliate link below (if you purchase through this link I get a small percentage which I use for my classroom)

Sunday, August 13, 2017

There are more and more books today reminding students that they live in a wonderfully diverse world. In fact the author of this journal have written quite a few books that focus on bringing attention a diverse variety of women wo otherwise live in the shadows of history.

This journal was created as a companion to those books (Rad American Women A-Z and Rad Women Worldwide). However, I own neither and find it great as a stand-alone.

Basically it's a guided journal that makes it easier to relate these larger than life women to students' own lives. AND in many cases introduce them to women who they probably haven't heard about in the classroom.

There are pages for drawing, doodling, and sketching...and pages with lines for writing. There are prompts based on quotes encouraging them to write about their own life or draw how they see themselves today.

The people vary from Beyoncé, who let's face it they already know to Agnes Varda (a European film maker).

In my mind, the journal accomplishes three tasks:
1. It gives students a touch of history and may ignite a curiosity in something or someone bigger than their life.
2. It helps students get to know themselves at a deeper level
3. It can have students create connections with people they otherwise distant from

As a teacher, I LOVE this book as inspiration for my own journal bell ringers. I plan on gifting it to a student I know who has a love of history.

I was lucky enough to get this book in exchange for an honest review. If it seems like something you're interested in, please check out three of Kate Schatz's books (including this one!) below. The below links are Amazon affiliate links. Regardless, these are 100% honest.